Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe is unfazed by Nico Rosberg’s lack of running in FP2, saying the German team has collected enough data from Lewis Hamilton’s car.
Rosberg had to skip Free Practice 2 at Silverstone today due to water leak, potentially putting him into a disadvantage heading into Saturday.
However, Lowe believes the data collected by teammate Hamilton, who was utterly dominant, may be helpful in making up for Rosberg’s lost time.
“This isn’t great for Nico, this sets him back,” Lowe told Sky Sports F1. “He hasn’t had that practice today.”

“In terms of general homework for the team, Lewis did a fantastic job in FP2, running the soft and medium in both low and high fuel. We’ve got our data for qualifying and the race which will carry across both cars. I think Nico will benefit from the running from Lewis’s car.”
Big hopes are set on tomorrow's final practice session before qualifying, in order to catch up and get the most out of those 60 minutes available.
“By the time we go into FP3, Nico will get quickly up to speed and tune himself in before qualifying.”
“You saw how he did it last week in Austria, went out and did three purple [sectors] straight out [after his FP3 suspension issues]. He has that ability.“As we saw in FP1 today there was a mini competition between Lewis and Nico which was actually really exciting to see them trade the fastest lap with some really good pace.”
The roots of the issue are still unknown, according to the technical director, who declared they had to pull the car apart to deepen the leaking problem.
“We don’t know exactly to be honest,” he said. “We’ve pulled the car apart to look into it. There’s a small water leak and it appeared only just before the session started.
“We hoped to be able to run through it, without repairing it, because it’s a very small leak, but in the end we effectively took the cautious route to protect the engine, there was some risk of damage.
“This is a Friday engine, so it’s not an engine we intend to race again this season, but it could be if we have cause to do so. We didn’t want to risk damage to that at this stage.”

This website is unofficial and is not associated in any way with the Formula One group of companies. F1, FORMULA ONE, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing B.V.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.